Hand-written letter from ‘Jaish commander’ warns of attacks on religious places

Roorkee: A hand-written letter, ostensibly sent by terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed, has threatened to blow up several religious places across northern India next month. The letter, which was sent to superintendent of Roorkee railway station SK Verma, also warned of attacks at Har Ki Pauri, Mansa Devi and Chandi Devi temples of Haridwar on May 16. It further threatened explosions in Allahabad and several temples in and around Ayodhya on May 21. Verma received the envelope in his routine mail on Thursday.

Inside the sealed envelope, there was a hand- written note in Hindi, signed by Mansoor Ali, who claimed to be “JeM’s area commander of Jammu”.

The letter threatened to carry out blasts at railway stations of Roorkee, Haridwar, Laksar, Dehradun, Moradabad, Meerut, Bareilly, Shahjahanpur, Gorakhpur and Faizabad on May 13.

This is not the first time that such a letter has been received. Similar letters carrying warnings to blow up religious places and establishments were received in 2005, 2007 and in 2011 also.

But all of them proved to be a hoax.

According to government railway police (GRP), as a precautionary measure, security has been increased at Haridwar railway station.

“Extra security has been put in place in and around the railway station at Haridwar. We are also in contact with intelligence agencies, railway protection force (RPG) and police of other districts,” said Manoj Katyal, additional superintendent of police (Uttarakhand GRP).